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Our United States has undeniably changed in the last three years.

Part of that obviously comes with time passing. Of course, a lot of it also has to do with the presidential election, the great polarization that arose and the partisan lines that were drawn once more.

However, as news of all different sides and opinions flew around, many people felt like the idea of a liberal and conservative were both models that they did not completely agree with, as sides taken by both the right and left were, frankly, quite extreme.

And as many students began paying attention to politics and feeling lost between a sea of two vastly different sizes, I know a lot of students, including me, who were greatly confused that there was seemingly no party for us, the more moderate, middle leaning.

Fortunately, this is not actually the case. Though many people hear the same extreme sides on the right and the left through the media, people on social media and current events, there are in reality many more moderate people and voters than those on the far right and far left. It is only because the extremists are often the most vocal that we believe that they are the only ones to exist.

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In a way, it is commendable that the people on both the far right and far left are able to push their agendas and make others believe there are only two extremely different viewpoints, and that new people looking for a party have to choose between only these two sides.

But it also is extremely harmful to our political system as a whole.

We as a society should not create two sides to every issue, assign the Republicans to one and Democrats to the other, and then force a “true political follower” to abide by every side of every issue that their preferred political party aligns with.

Because for the most part, people don’t agree with every side their party takes. For instance, there might be a person largely against government regulations in business, which leans right, whereas they also believe there is inequality among minorities and marginalized groups and push for equal rights, which leans left.

This person shouldn’t be met with backlash from both parties claiming that she is a wishy washy, flip-flopper. Instead, she should be celebrated for having her their own personal beliefs.

Because after all, isn’t that why we vote? For our own personal beliefs. We should never, ever subject and demean ourselves to vote unthinkingly along party lines.